


Tales from the Museum

by cherrylove



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Museum AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-08 03:42:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10377117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrylove/pseuds/cherrylove
Summary: Now these three people were her people and Lydia valued the friendship she’d found in them. It made the slow realization over the last several months that she might feel something more for the goofy, whiskey-eyed tour guide than she was fully ready to admit to anxiety-inducing. She bit the inside of her cheek as her eyes met Stiles’. He smiled at her and she smiled back.





	

Lydia never imagined herself working in a children’s science museum when she started her dual degrees in biology and chemistry at MIT. However, she’d graduated almost three years ago and has been an exhibit curator at Boston Children’s Museum ever since. She hadn’t expected to love the job as much as she did, but she got to research and bring in new science related exhibits for the kids to enjoy and it was actually pretty fulfilling. 

After opening a new exhibit to the public Lydia liked to take walk around her section of the museum while tours went on or parents brought their children through to see how the children were reacting to the new addition. Besides getting good responses to her new additions, what she most enjoyed was watching the guides, one of them in particular more than the others, come through with the kids. She wrote their scripts and helped them with all of the information, but she could tell who really loved working with these kids and who didn’t. 

Stiles Stilinski was by far the most enthusiastic about his job at the museum. He was bright eyed and a little goofy, but could remember all her facts down to the minutiae and always got the kids fully engaged. He would guide them around the exhibits and help them interact with all the things they could interact with. He truly had a talent for this whole tour thing and she really appreciated it. 

It was rare that outside of education for new exhibits that the curators and the guides spent much time together, but the director of the museum loved holidays and as a result that meant anytime a new holiday (especially one big with kids) was coming up the whole team was in charge of decorating their area. Today they were decorating for Valentine’s Day and because they were part of the biology exhibits, Lydia liked to include several anatomical heart models dispersed around their normal exhibits to go along with the inaccurate hearts decorating the posts around the room and exhibit stands. Her best friend and another guide, Allison, was stringing red tinsel wherever she could find a place and Stiles was on a ladder hanging shiny and glittering hearts from the ceiling. 

Lydia finished putting one anatomical heart together and stood, brushing off her hands on her yoga pants. She wasn’t sure that their decorations were any of the children’s favorite, but she was proud of them and the work her team put into them. 

“Anything else, Lydia?”

Lydia jumped slightly and turned around, “Oh, um, no. You hung up all the hearts?” 

“Yup, got all of them up,” Stiles said, his hands tucked into his back pockets

“Awesome…do you mind helping Allison finish with the red tinsel? I think she only has a little bit left and then we can go grab some dinner on me.” 

Stiles nodded, gave her and mock salute, and turned to go help the other tour guide. 

Lydia spent the next several moments looking over the decorations and the state of her exhibits. She wasn’t sure what it was about Stiles, but he was sweet and intelligent and interesting to say the least. He was working his way through his Master’s in classical mythology while he worked as a guide at the museum. 

When Allison and Stiles were done, Lydia shut off the lights and led them through the museum. They met Stiles’ best friend and Allison’s boyfriend, Scott outside on the steps of the museum where he was waiting with a leather jacket on over his scrubs, hands tucked into his pockets. He was a vet over in the Beacon Hill area of Boston not too far from the museum. 

Stiles and Scott executed a rather complicated handshake before Allison reached her boyfriend. They shared a sweet kiss and Lydia smiled, happy to see her friend so happy. Stiles nudged her with his elbow and smiled at her. 

“They’re sweet together…” he whispered. 

“Yeah, they are. Scott was all Allison talked about for weeks during lunch breaks and our weekly girls’ night. I’m glad they figured it out finally.” 

Stiles chuckled, “Me too. Scott was all puppy dog eyes when he came to the museum and doing a pretty convincing impersonation of the seven dwarves long lost brother Mopey for a while there.” 

Lydia laughed and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket, “A match made in metaphorical heaven.” 

They made it to the Indian place they all liked a couple blocks over and the hostess sat them with their favorite server. They ordered various curries with jasmine rice and samosas along with two different types of naan. 

Lydia and Allison sipped on chai teas while the boys enjoyed beers. It was always nice to unwind with good food and good company. She was glad to have found the people she did when she moved to Boston. Allison was a history major at Boston University with a focus in European war history and working her way through her Master’s like Stiles. She’d been the first person to befriend Lydia when she started at the museum. 

If she had been the person she was back in high school, she never would have befriended the girl, but MIT-educated Lydia was a different person. She’d discovered that being the youngest person in the junior class meant she wasn’t quite as popular as she once had been. She was kind of the odd one out, a first for the gorgeous math prodigy. By the time she got hired, she was happy to find someone as friendly as Allison. Along with Allison, came Stiles. He’d been there since high school according to Allison and was one of the goofiest, nicest guys she knew. Then along with Stiles came Scott. The boys had been friends forever. They were almost like a package deal. 

Now these three people were her people and she valued the friendship she’d found in them. It made the slow realization over the last several months that she might feel something more for the goofy, whiskey-eyed tour guide than she was fully ready to admit to anxiety-inducing. She bit the inside of her cheek as her eyes met Stiles’. He smiled at her and she smiled back. 

The group parted ways after dinner with Scott and Stiles headed towards the east end of Boston to their apartment while Allison and Lydia made their way toward the Beacon Hill area to their own townhouse. Allison linked an arm with Lydia’s before stuffing her other hand into the pocket of her coat. 

“You do know that Stiles is completely head over heels in love with you, right?” 

Lydia sighed and adjusted her scarf with her free hand before tucking it back into her own pocket, “I’m quite aware. He’s not quite as subtle as he’d like to think he is.” 

“I think you two would make a good match. You’re both entirely too smart for your own good. His goofiness would balance your unwavering seriousness. I think you’d be surprised how well you two would go together.” 

“Like orange and blue…” Lydia murmured.

“What?” Allison asked. 

“Nothing really. Just something Stiles said when the four of us went ice skating. That orange and blue went together well, but it was a surprising combination that no one really expected, just like two people can be sometimes,” she explained. 

Allison laughed softly, “Such a Stiles thing to say. You reject a Mets beanie or something?” 

“Or something. The night the four of us went ice skating and I was still dating Jackson from the children’s museum in London and you had just started dating Scott. I was tying my skates and complained about being cold. He pulled out this atrocious orange scarf and I was wearing my blue coat with the mandarin collar. I told him that blue and orange clashed, so thanks but no thanks. He came back with that. I thought he was talking about you and Scott, but now I know he wasn’t.” 

“You could do worse. Sure, he’s dorky and everything, but he’s sweet and he loves how smart you are.” 

“I have done worse, but Scott and Stiles have become so important to me. I couldn’t mess that up.” 

Allison shook her head, “Whatever you say, Lyd…”

Lydia knew her best friend thought she was crazy, but she had such superficial friendships in high school and in college that now that she’d found true, lasting friends, she struggled with doing anything that might put that bond at risk. As much as she wished she was a more impulsive person who went for the reckless things she wanted more readily, she was not. She was all rational thought and well planned movements. Not designed to make decisions unless all options and risks were weighed out appropriately. 

That had served her well through school, but now. Now that she had something maybe worth being reckless for, it was seeming to be more of a hindrance than a benefit.


End file.
